Deep-tech startups are crucial to the future of Germany’s economy. Germany produces many groundbreaking scientific achievements. However, turning these into successful startups often proves difficult, because founding teams frequently lack essential business skills and entrepreneurial competencies. This skills gap is a major bottleneck in the country’s innovation ecosystem. DEEP Pioneers addresses this issue by offering targeted support to research institutions and scientific units, helping them develop strong founding teams for their technologies and research outcomes. 

“There is excellent research in Germany, but experienced founders often can’t access it because there are not enough connection points. Many investors see spin-off projects as not worth investing in because the founding teams lack key members,” says Thorsten Lambertus, managing director at DEEP. “To change that, we bring the right people together and systematize the process, from co-founder matching to the development of high-performance startup teams.” 

To achieve this, the institute closely collaborates with selected research groups, institutions, and their technology transfer offices (TTOs), continuously identifying technology-driven venture projects and connecting them with suitable entrepreneurial talent and capital providers. Throughout the entire process, DEEP’s experts offer intensive guidance and development. The program thus forms an essential interface between science, entrepreneurship, and the capital market. 

Dorothea Ringe, head of the cluster “Entrepreneurship” at the Hamburg-based Joachim Herz Foundation, explains, “We not only encourage and qualify scientists to increase the number of deep tech spin-offs, but we also want to create strategic structures that enable urgently needed innovation to happen and unfold its full impact. As a foundation, we can offer fast, flexible financial support and take bold steps. DEEP Pioneers is an exemplary program addressing a key challenge for science-based founding teams.” 

In the long term, DEEP aims to lay the foundation for a nationwide platform that systematically supports research-based, technology-driven spin-offs, making a lasting contribution to strengthening Germany as an innovation hub. 

About Joachim Herz Stiftung 

The Joachim Herz Foundation is committed to innovation and supporting the transfer of cutting-edge research into practice so that more research results can be put into practice and generate social benefits. The foundation strengthens start-up ecosystems and works to foster a new generation of entrepreneurial talent dedicated to sustainable business models and radical innovation. It is also helping to renew vocational training so that young workers are prepared for a working world that is being transformed by AI and digitalisation. The foundation’s aim is to provide effective solutions to current challenges such as climate protection, resource scarcity and the skilled labour shortage. The Foundation's activities utilize impulses from the USA and strengthen the German-American dialogue.